Cheryl Donovan Stark
by rockangel160
Summary: As Christmas approaches, Tony Stark gets a ghost from his past, a ghost who has no intention of leaving. Such a simple old lady on the outside, but what kind of secrets is she hiding deep down? About both herself and Tony? Does this old lady ever stop talking?
1. Prologue

"Oh, would you look at that…" Pepper held up small printed photo, "…Steve sent you a Christmas card."

"Like on paper? Does anyone even still do that?" Tony pulled stacks of leftovers from the fridge.

"He either hasn't discovered e-cards yet, or he's just choosing to do it the old fashioned way. Either way, I think it's adorable. See? He's wearing a Santa hat." She held the card up as Tony walked past her to sit on the couch with his paper containers of food.

"Just put it in a drawer or something." Tony opened a box of Chinese chicken.

"Actually, I think I will put it on the wall as a decoration." She grabbed some tape from the drawers and displayed it on the area of wall next to the fireplace. As she stood back and examined how the photo fit into its surroundings, she noticed that that something seemed out of place, "…You know you really should add more pictures to your wall."

"And why is that?" He spoke with a mouth full of food.

"I'm not sure; this space just seems so…empty. Like it's not really a home, it's just...Well, I would say an office, but even offices have photos of family or friends or…"

"Are you implying something, Pepper?" Tony finally turned to look at her, with his gaze saying that she ought to be careful with what she was going to say next.

"No, nothing at all." A smile came and went and then she went back to sorting out the mail. However, before she could start distinguishing the bills from the junk mail, she noticed an unusual sight on the security cameras, "Tony, it looks like someone's at the door."

With his free hand, he pulled up the security screens and zoomed in on the entrance, he stared for a few solid seconds of silence before closing the screen, "It's not important, just let her be."

"It's a little old lady, Tony. You can't just leave her in the snow." Pepper headed for controls to let her in, but Tony jumped up and guided her hand away from the button, "Pepper, don't, she's probably just lost and has the wrong building."

"Well, then we'll let her in and give her directions to the right building." She pushed his hands away and pressed it. Of course, the old woman wouldn't be let into the elevator until she passed a clearance check, but Tony started to facepalm and pace back and forth stressfully.

"What is wrong with you? Do you know her?" Pepper sternly crossed her arms, but couldn't help but chuckle. He looked afraid for some reason, but why of a supposedly random old woman? Before he decide on a place to hide, the elevator doors whooshed open, and the elderly woman strolled in gracefully with a polka-dotted green dress draped on her short and frail body and a dignified smile plastered on her wrinkled face.

"Anthony, sugar, after all these years…Look at what a big handsome man you've grown to be, and what a lovely wife you managed to catch for yourself," the old lady's thick Southern accent made Tony's ears burn, and he covered his eyes with his fingers as she took Pepper's hand to shake it, to which Pepper just smiled politely and looked to Tony for an explanation.

"It's been a while…Grandma."


	2. Tony's Family Tree

"…So then we heard a crash, and we just looked at each other at each other, horrified, and we ran to see what made the noise, and there was little Anthony crying on the floor with the vanity knocked over and all of mah jewelry was thrown everywhere on the floor! Oh, but how could I stay mad at him with those big brown eyes of his?" The petite woman sipped her cup of tea and giggled as she continued relaying memories to Pepper on the couch, "Oh that reminds me of when Anthony came to visit me at mah house in Milan and sure he was a growing boy, but I didn't expect him to eat all the ravioli!"

"Haha, some habits never truly die." Pepper sat with her legs up on the couch, listening attentively. Tony pressed his arm against the glass as he stared at the skyline, actually hoping for something to drop to the ground and start terrorizing New York City so that he could get a call that would take him away.

"Anthony sweetie, why don't you come down here and sit us? Your wife made us some delicious chinaberry tea." The silver-haired woman smiled.

"We're not married, Grandma. Pepper is my business partner." Tony still didn't look towards them.

"Oh, well Anthony's grandfather and I were business partners before we were married. Mah first husband had already passed away, rest in peace, but because the old man just adored me so much I was more like a daughter to him, so I was a virgin widow with two inheritances, one from him, and the other from mah grandparents in Atlanta. I was also still in mah twenties and quite beautiful, so there were many men who wanted to comfort this young, intelligent, well-bred, incredibly wealthy, and beautiful untouched widow." Tony's grandmother fell back on the seat, making a fainting motion as she remembered the peak of her appeal.

"I'm sure any man would have been crazy not to want you, Mrs. Stark." Pepper glanced at Tony as she was finally starting to see the family resemblance.

"Oh well that's the funny part. His grandfather didn't! Well not at first, at least. You see, Howard was engaged to this woman who was living in England at the time, so he was supposed to marry her when she arrived to the New York. I was so heartbroken; the only man I wanted was the only one who didn't want me! Well, luckily for me, the boat she took was a little passenger liner called the Titanic!" She broke into hysterics and slapped her knee, "Oh I do grieve for the poor souls who perished on that ship, but some good did come out of it. After all, how else would I have had Howard Jr. and little Anthony here?"

"Do you have a hotel room, Grandma?" Tony finally turned around.

"Oh, don't be such a Scrooge, Tony. It's the Christmas season. She should stay here. After all we have plenty of room." Pepper scolded him with her stare.

"Well that sounds lovely, darlin'. I believe I should call it a night; I am just so exhausted. Good night, have sweet dreams, Tony." She fanned herself as Pepper led her to one of the guest rooms.

Tony brought his laptop to bed with him as he usually did, for work purposes, but Pepper slammed it shut as she crawled next to him.

"Oh no, here it comes…." He rolled his eyes as he awaited the lecture.

"I need to know why you were so rude to your grandmother today." She crossed her arms.

"There are reasons I don't talk about my family, and those are reasons why I also don't talk _to_ my family._" _

"Why? What reasons could you have for trying to kick out your own grandmother out in merciless streets of New York and in freezing snowy weather?" Pepper's voice rose and got more scolding.

"I haven't seen her since my father's funeral, Pepper. After that, she just…vanished. I don't know why she decided to come back now, but there has to be something or someone behind it. Until I know for sure, I can't-"

"I can't believe you, Tony! You haven't seen your grandmother in decades and your first thought is that you can't _trust_ her? Did you ever think that maybe she came to see you because she_ misses_ you?"

"If she's here because she misses me, I don't think she would have waited this long to visit. She had all the money and time in the world, but she had never even once sent a call until today. Besides, maybe I didn't want to have to sit through three hours of hearing her repeat the same stories all over again." Tony pulled his laptop screen back open.

"You know…sometimes I wonder if there's even still a heart behind that thing." Pepper's finger clunked against the arc reactor. They sat in silence for a few minutes, before Pepper spoke up, "Did she say that in her twenties when the Titanic sank? That would make her over a 120 years old…"

"Half of Grandma's stories are made up for sheer entertainment value."

"But it makes sense, because if your father made his fortune in the forties, he would have had to have been born in…"

"It's best if you don't think about it."


	3. You Found Me

Tony didn't want to wake her up, so he quietly rolled up a chair in front of the bed. He waited until everyone was asleep to admit to himself that he really did miss her. Visiting his grandma was the only time that he felt like a normal kid, aside from the extravagant vacations. Even though Grandma's house was much bigger and fancier than others, she still acted the way typical grandmothers do. She would let him help her bake cookies, and she would take him to the park, and she would play games with him, and she would take him to the movies, and she would praise him for his drawings and block towers, all the things his parents paid nannies to do. Grandma Cherry, as she liked to be called instead of Cheryl, used to tell him about how even though her own mother grew up in a rich family, she herself was raised on her father's humble farm in South Carolina with strong sense of family and compassion. As he grew into his teens though, Tony's schedule got tighter and tighter until he only might have been able to squeeze in a visit to Grandma Cherry's for a few days during the summer. Still, she always sent birthday cards and Christmas cards…and then came the day of the accident.

Grandma Cherry was inconsolable at the funeral where everyone else kept a solemn but straight face. After a few brief words with her only grandson, she got into her limousine and drove off, and hadn't been seen since. He tried to visit her house, but the property had been sold. Her phone numbers were changed and no one could tell him where she went. It was like she had completely vanished from universe, and only the accumulation of greeting cards signed with her name stuffed in his drawer could prove that she even existed. Even when Tony had come to accept his parents' deaths, he felt betrayed by his grandmother. She was the one who spoke of the importance of family and then she dropped off the face of the earth when he needed the only family he had left. After a few years, he assumed she had died somewhere of old age and loneliness. To see her come back and act like nothing had happened filled him with questions and frustration.

She stirred in her sleep, and eventually felt his presence in the room which made her wake up. As she wiped her eyes, she murmured, "You could give an old woman a heart attack by creepin' up on 'em like that."

"Where were you, Grandma?" He asked with the smallest hint of sadness. She took a deep breath as she tried to formulate an answer for him. He couldn't tell if she was trying to think of a lie or build up the courage to speak the truth.

"I was…everywhere, in different countries, under different names. It's a terrible feeling, losing your only child. As you can imagine, we had grown apart even before the accident, but…there's a huge difference between not seeing him and knowing that you're never going to see him again…"

"Well I figured that much, but…why did you disappear? From me?"

"I…I needed to get away from everything, and when I say everything, I mean _everything_…even mah precious grandbaby." She reached to touch his cheek, but he didn't move, "I'm sorry, Anthony. I would have come back years ago, but when I saw in the papers how successful you were flying around in your metal suit, I felt like I would have been imposing on this new life you made for yourself. To put it simply, I thought you didn't need me here." She looked down with a sad smile.

"So why did you decide to come back now?" He tried to be calm but he still sounded slightly angry.

"…Well, before you start thinking it, it's not because I'm dying, so don't worry about that. I woke up this morning, saw Christmas was coming and thought, what the hell, the longer I wait to see Anthony, the bigger the shock it'll be. I decided that thirty years was enough, so I bought a plane ticket, and here I am." Her smile got brighter as she looked up and tilted her head.

Tony let out a deep sigh into his palm and pinched the bridge of his nose. After a few tense moments, he shrugged and put a hand on her shoulder, "Welcome back, Grandma Cherry."

"Oh, Anthony! I knew you'd take me back!" She lunged forward and hugged him tightly.

"Okay, one note for later, easy on the hugs, Grandma. I have a reputation around here. If anyone caught me being sentimental, it would undo all my hard work." He gave her a solid pat on the back while still in the embrace.

"No problem, but I'm still going to embarrass the hell out of you in front of all your friends."

"Good night, Grandma Cherry." He gave her one quick peck on the forehead before sneaking back to his room.


	4. Old and New Friends

"Anthony, you're gonna have to explain this to me one more time. So I have to go to this menu and then put in the code for the door?" Grandma Cherry squinted at the floating menu.

"No, see, from this menu you have to press the button where it says 'Entrances' and then this window here is where you enter the code."

"And how do I know which door I'm opening?"

"The codes are organized by what floor they're on. See? The doors on the first level all start off with '1' so if you wanted to open the back left garage door, you would enter 115. There's a map on this screen over here to show you which codes go to which door." Tony stood directly behind her and pulled up the screens she would need to keep guard.

"Tony, are you seriously putting her to work already?" Pepper shook her head as she poured the morning coffee.

"Oh, I insisted. When you're as old as me and have seen and done it all, it gets very boring to sit around and let everything get done for you. I would just watch TV, but none of these new shows that kids today watch tickle my fancy, and I've already seen all the reruns of the good shows about a hundred times, and I'm not even using a hyperbole there. I have spent years of my life in front of the television just to give me something to do. I did try knitting, but I made enough socks to last for life time…Oh that reminds me!" The old woman leaped up from the desk and ran to retrieve a large floral-print hat box from her room, "I made these for you, Anthony. Just consider them the thirty years-worth of Christmas presents I owe you."

"You are just too much, Grandma." He said affectionately as he popped off the lid and pulled out the colorful assortment of knitted socks, scarves, hats, mittens, blankets, and even a bright red sweater.

"Mah mama always told me that the most important quality to a proper Southern lady was charity. You can share those with your friends if you so choose." She held an antique lavender silk fan in front of her as she sat at the bar and crossed her legs.

"That is very sweet of you, Mrs. Stark. Tony could use some variety in his wardrobe." Pepper took a long green and blue striped scarf and threw it around Tony's neck as he drew a defeated sigh.

"Oh darlin', you don't have call me Mrs. Anything, just Grandma Cherry, or Miss Cherry if you prefer." She smiled her usual smile until she saw someone on the holographic screen, "Oh, there's some men at the door? Who comes here this early?"

"That would be Bruce…and Steve?" Tony looked perplexed and then shrugged, "Fine, let them in."

"Oh, let me do it!" Grandma Cherry rushed to the screen, but took her time trying to remember the order of buttons to push, "…Okay, press open…there's no button to say to open the doors."

Tony put down his breakfast donut and reached to touch the screen himself "No, that's to open _files_, and you're not even on the main me-"

"I can do it!" She raised her voice in persistence, "Okay…menu…control panel…network status…"

Tony motioned for Pepper to go downstairs and open the doors manually, and when they whooshed open, the oblivious old woman cheered for herself thinking she got it right. Steve came with gifts in his hands while Bruce kept his in his pockets.

"Hey, look who it is…" Tony pulled a purple knit cap from the box and put it on Bruce's head, "Merry Christmas."

"Yeah…you, too," Bruce pulled on the end of Tony's scarf and threw it across his friend's shoulder.

"Oh mah goodness! I forgot that I'm not decent!" Grandma Cherry gasped in surprise and scuttled on to her room in her pajamas before she had a chance to introduce herself.

"Wow, Tony, I knew you had very broad tastes, but she has to be…" Bruce pursed his lips.

"Oh, you're funny, and disgusting. She's actually… a relative of mine." Tony had to take a deep breath to say it.

Steve did a double take as he put his presents under the little silver Christmas tree on the counter, "Since when do you have family come to visit you?"

"Um, it's Christmas, Steve? That's not a new concept. A lot of people have relatives over for Christmas." Tony scoffed and crossed his arms

"I thought you always travel to the Caribbean for Christmas." Bruce grabbed a donut from the bar.

"Well this year, things turned out a little differently…"

"Sorry I ran out on you fine gentlemen, but I could not bear to be seen without my proper attire." Grandma Cherry strutted out in a red cashmere sweater with mistletoe pendant hanging around her neck and red lipstick to match. She straightened out her tight black pencil skirt before putting her hands on her hips in a pose.

"Gentlemen, this is Grandma Stark. Grandma, this is Dr. Bruce Banner and Steve Rogers." Tony waved his hand to gesture them to get acquainted, but Steve just stared at her with a shocked look, and for a brief horrifying moment, he thought that Steve was attracted to her.

Grandma Cherry gasped, "Oh, how could I not recognize the one and only Captain America!" She skipped to right in front of him and offered her hand, "I remember when my boy Howard introduced us. All these years and you haven't even aged a day. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for myself."

"You…" Steve tried to make sense of everything but he was flabbergasted, "You look like you're in excellent health, though, Miss Cherry."


	5. Christmas Cheer

"I never expected to see you again." Steve shook her hand and smiled from cheek to cheek. What he really meant was "How are you possibly still alive?"

"I never thought I'd see the day when Steve would actually find someone from his time." Tony pulled a beer out of the fridge.

"Were you a part of the Super Soldier Serum project, ma'am?" Bruce asked.

"No! Oh lord in heaven, no! Howard just brought him home for dinner on a few occasions." Her look of almost horror turned back into smiling gaze to Steve, "I never expected you to be acquainted with Anthony as you were with Howard. Isn't life just funny sometimes? Now pardon me if this comes off a bit rude, but how is it you look like same as you did all those years ago?" She chuckled as lightly brushed her fingers over her wrinkled face, "I would really love to get in on the secret."

"…Ice. Lots and lots of ice." Steve shrugged.

"Well, that's sure looks like that's worked better than mah special creams, maybe I should try it." She cupped his smooth soft cheek.

"So Tony, I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but we should expect a call from that Fury guy pretty soon." Bruce muttered as he scratched the back of his neck.

"That Fury guy?" Her head perked up a little too quickly, "Who's that Fury guy?"

"It's just work-related stuff, Grandma, you don't need to worry about that," Tony brushed the matter off with a wave of his hand, "So what does he need this time?"

"Well, we're not sure if he needs us just yet, but there was a security breach in one of the laboratories, and an experiment that he refuses to name was taken."

"So how are we supposed to get it back if we don't know what it is?" Steve turned his head even as Grandma Cherry was still feeling his cheeks.

"If they can get it back without us, they won't even need to tell us what it is." Bruce explained.

"So why even tell you that they have this project they don't want to talk about if they're not even sure we'll be involved?" Tony took a seat on the couch next to Bruce.

"He was just warning us not to make any big Christmas trip plans, y'know, just in case he needs us." Bruce smirked to which Tony rolled his eyes and took a big sip from his bottle.

"Well, since Anthony has all this company over, perhaps I should make some Christmas cookies!" The old lady clasped her hands together and jumped a little in excitement.

"Yes!" Both Tony and Steve exclaimed simultaneously, which surprised Pepper and Bruce, but Tony just responded, "What? She makes excellent cookies."

"They're the best." Steve added, "especially the snickerdoodles."

"Anthony, help Grandma Cherry find the cooking supplies." She opened up cabinet after cabinet looking for measuring cups and mixing bowls and whisks.

"Oh, Anthony doesn't use _this_ kitchen for cooking, ma'am," Pepper decided to start calling him the same name, "You'll want to use the chef's kitchen on the third floor."

"Oh, but this one's so nice and cozy! It's got this nice countertop and stainless steel oven and it's so close to where the guests are."

"Use whatever kitchen you like, Grandma, whichever one makes twenty dozen cookies faster…oh, might as well throw in an extra dozen so that these guys can have some, too. " Tony walked alongside her with his hand around her shoulder.

"Oh, you're so silly, you." She playfully slapped his arm, "So are you gonna help your old Grandma knead the dough and decorate the cookies like you used to?"

"I'll help!" Steve followed behind them, but Tony shot him a look that was almost possessive of her.

"I would that. In fact you should all help out. The more love you put into it, the better they come out." Grandma Cherry spoke with the sense of conviction that only comes with experience.

Since the old woman declared that the best cookies were made from scratch, the whole group worked together to gather the necessary ingredients, like the flour, and the eggs, and the sugar, and the butter, and the cinnamon, and some food coloring to make things more festive. She was so old-fashioned, that she insisted that Tony mix the batter with a spoon instead of one of his fancy spinning gadgets. As Steve was kneading his own ball of dough, a pocket of flour exploded on his face as he pressed down with his bare hands. Bruce turned out to be quite the natural chef once he focused on the science behind it. It took some time for Pepper get used to the feeling of sticky raw dough on her hands.

"Are…Steve, are you licking the spoon?" Tony caught him with his tongue running along the wooden curve that was covered in batter and yanked it away from him, "I was still using that y'know."


	6. More Than It Seems

"…So mah job was to keep Bertha's pregnancy a secret. Because you see here, Bertha was the most impulsive of us. She kept vomiting at formal engagements, but I would just lead her to her carriage and say that she had too much champagne. Now that I think of it, it wasn't a very good lie. After all, Bertha would drink all the time before the baby, so people probably noticed when she stopped taking drinks due to her condition. I should have told them she had a stomach virus; that would be so much more believable, because you see, we didn't have penicillin yet, so a lot of people got sick all the time. Oh, but that's no good either, is it? Then everyone would have avoided her like the plague! You see that was the problem with her! She loved the attention so much it was hard for her NOT to go outside even when her belly was getting to the size of the house, so I just had to keep inventing stories for her and asking the Lord for forgiveness for telling such lies. It all worked out for the best though, she had the baby and Mr. Harrison had no idea that the cute baby boy he made his heir actually belonged to the Archduke's nephew."

"Uh huh, that's my favorite story to hear, Grandma." Tony muttered as he crouched in front of the glowing oven like a baseball player getting ready to catch a fly ball.

"So if you've been that rich for that long…why do you still cook, ma'am?" Bruce felt the need to ask.

"We didn't exactly avoid the Great Depression, darlin'. While the Lord did bless us with a roof over our heads and enough to eat, the candy factory I took over from my first husband went under, seeing as hardly anybody had the money for bread let alone chocolate. Howard's company obviously survived, but we had to downsize our facilities, halt hundreds of productions, and let go of all the help. When the war started, we landed right back on our feet! Still, there were those years where I had to relearn all my lady skills: cooking, sewing, cleaning, you know the rest. It's difficult when you grow so accustomed to living without something…and then one day when you least expect it…you need it again, and you feel so foolish for throwing it away," Grandma Cherry stared into her reflection in the stainless steel bowl she was washing. She was too focused on the wrinkles decorating her heart-shaped face that she didn't see the puddle of soapy water that had leaked onto the tile next to her. As she tried to make her way to the dishwasher with the load of dirty cooking utensils, she roughly brushed her sandal through it and slipped far enough to make her fall backwards and land on her side, dropping all the bowls and egg beaters with loud thuds and clangs.

"Miss Cherry, are you alright?!" Steve and Pepper were tied for the first to rush to her side and inspect her to see if she had broken anything. Tony finally broke his concentration off the oven and also ran to her, and also pulled out his phone in preparing to call his personal doctor. Bruce helped them try to pick her up, but the old lady insisted she could get up herself and that she was fine.

"I'm fine, boys. It sounded worse than it actually was. Just a little fall won't hurt silly ol' me." She tried to calm them down with a cheery attitude, but all four of them knew better.

"With all due respect, ma'am, a fall at your age is no small matter. You should at least see a doctor to see if anything's out of place." Bruce politely insisted.

"I'll take care of this, gentlemen. You need not worry. If you'll excuse me, I need to take my medicine. Don't wait for me." She playfully blew them kisses as the door closed between them. Tony paused for a few second, taking a deep silent breath before sitting on the couch and furiously typing away at his laptop. Pepper looked over to discover that Tony was watching a webcam that showed Grandma Cherry's point of vision.

"Wow, you actually bugged the poor woman?!" Pepper exclaimed as she watched the screen, where Grandma Cherry was pulling a tray of daily-marked medication from the cabinet and swallowing her pills one by one.

"My grandmother who always tried to teach me the importance of family and personal relationships leaves without even a goodbye, and she expects me to believe that she did so out of pure grief? Even if _that _part is true, she comes back all of sudden like nothing is wrong, and she tells me it's because she missed me so much. Why wait thirty years then? And that's another thing. She's still alive. You're right, Pepper. She should be 130 years old by now. I thought she died decades ago, maybe at a less suspicious 102 or something. So maybe, I'm a _little _suspicious of her." Tony explained not only to her, but to his teammates who had all gathered around him. They didn't need to say they wanted a part of this investigation.

"So you bugged her. How did you even do that? Did you put something on her clothes?"

"No, actually. It's an adhesive nano-camera; completely invisible to the naked eye, waterproof, heat-resistant, and best of all, can be applied with a seemingly innocent gesture, such as a handshake, a pat on the cheek…or a kiss on the forehead." Tony gave a clever smile.

"That's so…cold, Tony." Steve almost sounded like he was about to scold him, "She's your family, and you used something that's supposed to be affectionate as a means to spy on her."

"Well, lecture me all you like, it was completely necessary. Take a look at this," Tony presented the camera to the holographic projector, revealing that Grandma Cherry had been joined by Natasha, and that their conversation was more than simple chit chat.

"I knew I couldn't avoid you for very long…" Grandma Cherry sighed with sadness and a small hint of relief, "…so what happens now? Do you take me away to kill me?"

"We both know it's not that easy." Natasha shook her head sympathetically.


	7. Unknown

"Okay, so here's what's going to happen. I'm going to take you in, and you'll have a nice chat with the director." Natasha explained calmly as she reached for Grandma Cherry's arm.

"But I don't want to see the director, I want to stay here." She insisted stubbornly as she backed away.

"With all due respect, miss, you know the rules, and you know what's at stake." Natasha crossed her arms, "You broke the rules, so I have to do my job."

"Well, you can try." The old woman stubbornly took a seat on the sink counter, to which the Russian agent just groaned, "I'm not averse to manhandling an old woman."

Watching this put a small nick to Tony's heart that made a big crack. He hadn't wanted to be right this time. He wanted to trust her, but here she was, involved with S.H.I.E.L.D. What did she have to do with them, and for how long had she known about them? He stormed off to burst right into that restroom, which by then Natasha had hid herself from sight.

"Alright, Grandma, you have ten seconds to tell me what you're _really _doing here." All the tenderness was gone from his voice.

"I…really just wanted to see you, Anthony." She answered as she started shaking.

"I heard everything. Ten…nine…eight…" He held up his hands and brought each finger down.

"I'm serious. Cross my heart and hope to die!" She grew more desperate.

"Seven…six…five…"

"I have something that they want!" She screamed so hard that the natural pink in her cheeks overshadowed her blush.

"What do you have that they want?" Tony's tone calmed down, and it would remain so for as long as she was willing to stay honest, but she tucked her lips into her mouth and looked aside in shame, so Tony had to resort to his other source, "Natasha, I know you're in here, what does she have?"

However, there was only silence. After all, the Black Widow doesn't just crawl out of her hiding spot on a whim. So Tony grabbed a broom from the closet and started pushing up ceiling panels until he heard a guttural grunt, "…Ah, there's our little pest problem. Now she better come down from there before I adjust the settings on the ventilation shaft."

Natasha jumped down immediately but snipped, "You don't have to call me a pest."

"I'm having a rough day. What does Fury want from her?" Tony was more aggressive with Natasha.

"That's between her and S.H.I.E.L.D. It doesn't concern you."

"She's my grandmother, you can't just tell me to butt out. What is with you people coming into my home just to tell me that there's something I'm not supposed to know?"

"Well I can tell you this. She really did just want to see you. Of course, she's been hiding from us for a _very_ long time now, so coming here would have made it all too easy to find her. I guess she finally got tired of running."

"I'm still not giving it to you. It never should have left the family." Grandma Cherry turned her head away stubbornly.

"Well, can I have it then?" Tony asked.

"No, sugar. You don't want any part of it." She patted his cheek tried to sound sweet and innocent again, even though she knew it was futile at this point. Natasha hushed them both as she answered a phone call.

"Yeah?...Great…Really? If you say so," She shrugged as she put the phone away, "Fury wants to see you, Tony. He said he'll give you a proper explanation once we get to base."

"Oh, "proper," sure, somehow he's going to make all of this make sense. Well, it's worth a shot." Tony walked with Natasha to the elevator, walking past Bruce and Steve who had seen the whole thing on camera.

"Well, hold on just a gosh darn minute! I should go, too! I have every right to-" The old woman rushed behind her grandson, who turned around and shot her a dirty glare just before she could put her hands on him.

"I think you've done enough. You two watch her to make sure she doesn't cause any more trouble." He gestured to his friends before taking off.

Grandma Cherry tucked her shoulders into herself as she stood there in silence. Steve rushed to her side and touched her hand lightly, "Miss Cherry, maybe you should rest. I'm sure this is very stressful for you, and if I remember correctly, you do have a heart condition."

"You're very kind, as always, Steven, but I had a defibrillator put in years ago. My weak little heart hasn't given me trouble in decades," She took his hand and patted it, "but you're right, some rest would do me good. I'll be retiring now, gentlemen, if you don't mind."

While Grandma Cherry was taking a nap, Bruce and Steve sat on the couch by themselves, trying to keep the spirit of the season up.

"You guys were right, these are delicious." Bruce munched on a snowman-shaped snickerdoodle.

"Yeah, more so than I remember," Steve smiled as he nibbled on a tree-shaped one, "I admit I did have my suspicions. How could I not? She's older than me, in every sense, but I think Tony was too hard on her. I mean it's not every day that someone close to you just walks back into your life, just like that."

"Well, what else do you expect him to do? At least she's still here in the house, for now."

"But did you see the way he just…brushed her aside? Well not literally, but…" Steve shook his head, "Maybe if we just go about this calmly, without pointing fingers, she'll be more cooperative and explain it to us. She's a nice lady."

Isolated in her room, Grandma Cherry watched the security cameras, still dedicated to her door duties. She noticed a tall slender figure approaching one of the back doors. With long sleek black hair and a thin gaunt white face, he was conspicuously dressed in a tight dark green suit with shiny gold plates of armor and a cape to match. She didn't recognize him, but in that get up she figured he must have been one of Tony's superhero friends. She grabbed a control pad and played with the buttons until she finally entered the correct code to open the door.


End file.
